Thanksgiving Week in New Orleans

We figured the only way to get all of Lisa's siblings together was to meet half way. New Orleans was the half way point (8 hours drive from all of our cities: Atlanta GA, Warner Robins GA, and Dallas TX) so we decided to have a non-traditional Thanksgiving there. So glad we got to hang out for a few days.

First night, we visited Louisiana Pizza Kitchen.   It was just nice to see everyone again. We were all exhausted after  hours of driving from different directions. The kids were at the table next to Alex, going crazy, seeing their cousins again.

The smaller kids are meeting again!

Can you believe Louisiana Pizza Kitchen served a Jambalaya pizza that wasn't spicy? That should just knock them down a few stars on the foodie's rating scale. It was OK.

Hope is going through a garlic stage. She loves all things garlic, so we ordered a roasted garlic pizza. It was filled with chunks of roasted garlic. She gobbled it up. Parents helped.

Mississippi River morning run. We got to see lots of business people, tourists, and homeless people meandering along the river walk. Very interesting city.

The famous Cafe Du Monde, where the only items they serve are Coffee and Beignets 24 hours a day. This was the same place we visited on our move out to Georgia. It was nice to have a simple calorie-rich breakfast with family.

The girl cousins waiting for their beignets and hot chocolate. No coffee for the minors.

The boy cousins waiting for their food. It was amazing to actually get three faces in the camera as they were moving and moving all the time.

Another pic in front of the famous cafe.

For dinner, we headed to Cochon (it means suckling pig in French). Lisa ordered rabbit and dumplings because we don't normally eat rabbits at home. It was pretty tasty; nothing really special though. Yes, they tasted a lot like chicken.

Paxton ordered ribs over spaghetti squash. Not bad. We did get to try out alligator meat, but the kids ate it all before we got a pic.

Another pic of the Mississippi River with people in it. We weren't running that day. It was actually quite cold: 60F.... for southerners.

A typical New Orleans French Quarter home. Very old and beautiful.

Another shot of a New Orleans Street. Many of these homes are purportedly haunted...probably because they are so old. We think it's more the presence of Voodoo that makes this town feel very dark and dreary. This place needs light.

We stayed at Frenchmen Orleans 519, a small hotel that was more condo-like because every room had a full kitchen. Every night, a full brass jazz band played outside the front door until 2am. Our family got the primo spot in the back, so we actually got to sleep. One of our families got the front room and had to request a new room. No matter how cool brass bands are, after listening all night, it gets annoying...

Here's the inner courtyard of the hotel. Pretty nice.

Another morning run on the Mississippi River. Just lovely.

Dinner at Irene's was our best dinner of the week. We enjoyed shrimp and paneed oysters with a delicious spinach and apple salad.

For entrees, we had Crevette (shrimp over fish) with a lovely sauce.

Crabmeat Gratin. I think we gobbled this up way too fast. 

Softshell Crab. This was by far the best thing we had. Yum!

Thanksgiving morning, one brother had to return home and another brother wanted to eat more beignets with his wife. We wanted to explore alligators in the bayou, so off we drove a few minutes south for a southern hike in the swamps

The creepy bayou with hidden alligators and lots of birds. Very cool place to take the kids

Nutria: basically a huge rat, sitting and sunning herself and her baby. It was neat to see these animals.

Egrets are everywhere in the south. No matter, they are still beautiful and graceful birds.

We finally found what we were looking for. The very elusive alligator. We think he was only out because it was a fairly warm day.

We had to stop by the ocean on the road home. Just to put our feet in for a few minutes. It was cold, thus, no visitors. It was still beautiful.

Withdrawal

Going through withdrawal...no not medical withdrawal or alcoholic withdrawal. Actual Colorado  Springs withdrawal. Or in Georgia: withdrawwwwl.

Symptoms:
1. Wishing we could just head to Costco to buy TP or sugar or flour or toothpaste or food. Instead, gotta go to the grocery stores where we are clueless where everything is. And then we find this:

Instant Grits. Fake cheese, fake grits. Not bad in taste. Made us 5 pounds heavier...

2. Wishing we could head over to Sprouts to buy organic fruit without having to spend an arm and two legs to buy organic apples or organic spinach. One pound of organic spinach in the military commissary was $5. Oh, for a Costco or a Sprouts. Withdrawal.

3. Our piano teacher, Mrs. Remtema. We knew exactly what to practice: scales, arpeggios, memorize songs into section, prepare for the Christmas recital,  start memorizing for the Spring Festival, four stars equals one special reward. Our new teachers don't even ask if we've practiced. They don't even care if we memorize. Mom has had to give Hope a star chart at home, and she gets an award for every 10 stars. Not the same as Mrs. Remtema. We miss her....

4. Snow when it's cold. Georgia is 20F to 40F. Shouldn't there be snow with that cold?  It's just humid cold which goes straight to the bones.  Snow withdrawal...

5. Dim Sum withdrawal. Don't even know WHERE to go for Dim Sum. The Chinese belly is really aching here.

6. Sandy Soil withdrawal. Sure we hated all of that sand in Colorado, but Georgia red clay really stinks! When it rains, the dog has red feet that paints the floor when she runs in. This red clay is seriously not coming out if it gets into the house.  Our iris bulbs await some sand soil before being planted. 

7. Church. Sure miss New Life and the great people. No church on earth is perfect, we know. But it's 75% Baptist here, one Methodist church, one Presbyterian, a handful of full gospel, and a few non-denominational churches. 99% of the people attend church here. Not many read the Bible. Still trying to find a good group to hang with. We think we found a place to worship. It's Baptist.

8. High Country Home Educators. The support was great. Loved the laughter, the tears, the prayers.  The one co-op that  existed fell apart because they prices were raise, and there was anarchy. A smaller one formed up, and we got to partake in the beginnings. Still, we have to make new friends, new classes, new laughter, new stories. Just wished we could go where everybody knew your name.

9. Hair cuts. Nobody can recommend a good hair place. We used to go to the Salon Academy which was so fun and so cheap. No school here. I guess it's time to grow the hair out.

10. New doctors. Ugh. Start all over with all of the history, all of the meds.....yadda yadda yadda. New therapists, new everything.

Moving is NOT FUN.....

Nov 8, Sat 2014 By Hope Mellinger

   Hi, Hope again. This is what I did on November 8 Saturday, 2014. We cleaned up the house. Then we went to a festival in Warner Robins Air Force Base. The festival was called fall bash. It was very fun, this is what I did there:  Well when we arrived there, there were like a ton of things to do. First we went on a Mad teacup ride. My parents didn't let us spin around very fast. Then Josiah and I did this obstacle course. I guess that was fun.
   Then we lined up for another amusement park like ride. There were little "cars" and you would get in them and the whole thing would spin while your "car" spun, well you had to spin it the way you had to spin a teacup like in a teacup ride. Mom and Dad got on one car (well it wasn't really a car I'm just saying its a car 'cause Mom doesn't know what it's called) and Josiah and Me got on another so we could go really, really, really, really, really,  fast. We did go really, really, really, really, really fast. 

   But I did most of the spinning, Josiah only spun about ten seconds. Dad and Mom didn't really spin. They just tried to take pictures of us. Then my brother and I did another thing (my mom doesn't know what that thing was called either)  You had to run but a rope thing would pull you back. 

 After that we went to a station you would put on glasses that made you know what it would be like if you were: not drunk sorta drunk drunk and very drunk. When I put on the "very drunk glasses' I hardly could even walk! And if you were over 14 you got to drive a golf cart without hitting the cones wearing the a little bit drunk, drunk and very drunk glasses. Then did some other things. And I got my hair sprayed pink & purple  (my Mom made me wash it out when I got home). 

Then I ate  boiled peanuts while waiting in line for a  bungee cord jump thing but they were wrapping up. So, I did another slide thing. And after that we went home

The day at North peach park by Hope

  
Today, I went to a park called, North peach park. It was big. About ten acres my Mom said (probably a little bigger). My Mom said we wouldn't be going back every Wednesday. She had to drive for about thirty minutes. We were going there because we were part of a home-school co-op and every Wednesday(if you wanted to) you would go to the park.  Well, let me tell you what I did there. So, first I saw my friends Zoe and Justice and their brothers Zane and Jett. I explored the park.  There were a lot of big trees. Justice told me that they were pecan trees and there were pecan nuts that you could eat. She found one and showed it to me. Then she opened it (You can open it either by: 

1)throwing it against something hard,

2)getting a really big pecan and a small one and using the big one to crush the other or 

3)putting it on the side walk and stepping on it. 

She used technique number 2.

I mostly used number 3 (I thought it was more fun)and there was a pecan!

Of course we ate it. I showed one that had not been opened to my Mom . She told me that it was NOT a pecan. I opened it then showed her again. She said it was. Then I got more pecans and  three of them had grubs inside. I almost ate the grub. About 80% of the ones I got were rotten and were just dirt. I ate about 90 percent of all the good ones I found. The rest I gave to my friends and stored with my Mom was. But she forgot about them when we left. Then I also seesawed and swung on the big "steering wheel" which is really, really, really hard to explain what it is and how I used it unless you saw it yourself. I also played some tennis after I ate.